Author: Minivan News

Three bills returned to parliament

Three bills have been returned to the People’s Majlis by President Mohamed Waheed Hassan for reconsideration and amendment.

The Business Registration Bill, the Corporate Tax Bill and the Sole Trader Bill passed respectively on April 23, 24 and 25, 2012, have all been sent back to parliament for revision, according to the President’s Office website.

In a letter to Parliamentary Speaker Abdulla Shahid, President Waheed detailed several concerns said to have been raised by the attorney general.

The exact nature of these concerns was not detailed by the President’s Office.

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Tourism Minister looks for alternative sources after loss from lease payments

Minister for Tourism Ahmed Adheeb has said that the Tourism Ministry will work on ways to increasing its revenue, acknowledging that income lost from changes to island lease payments would leave its earnings far short of those predicted in the budget.

“The expected amount from lease rent will not be acquired within the year. This is about Rf 500 million (US$32 million). We are looking for ways to compensate for the loss. Discussions on the issue will start next week,” Haveeru reported Adheeb as saying.

The current government recently re-interpreted a clause in the Tourism act, allowing the payment of island lease extensions to be made in installments rather than up front, as had previously been the case.

The Maldives Inland Revenue Authority’s (MIRA) figures for March revealed that the government received over Rf350 million (US$23 million)less that month than anticipated in the budget.

The IMF’s suggestions that the Tourism Goods and Services Tax (TGST) be raised to 12 percent would not be the only method discussed within the ministry to compensate for the lost income.

“The discussions are not to simply discuss increasing the amount of TGST charged from resorts. The government has not decided to increase TGST to 12 percent. The government wants to find out the ways from which the tourism industry can compensate for the amount of predicted loss,” Haveeru reported.

The Majlis Financial Committee revealed this week that the current budget deficit would reach 27 percent of GDP by the end of this year.

Head of the Majlis’s Financial Committee, Deputy Speaker and People’s Alliance (PA) MP Ahmed Nazim, revealed that government revenue for 2012 would be Rf2.6 billion (US$168.6 million) less than the projected amount of Rf10.87 billion (US$704 million) – a drop of 23 percent.

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President provides account of his actions to CNI

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan on Tuesday met with the Committee of National Inquiry (CNI) to provide an account of his actions during the recent transfer of presidential power.

The CNI was set up by Dr Waheed to investigate the legitimacy and legality of the events between January 14 and February 8 following the claims of the former ruling party, the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), that the change of power was tantamount to a coup.

The Committee which consists of Ismail Shafeeu, Dr Ibrahim Yasir and Dr Ali Fawaz Shareef, has been criticised by the MDP who argue that it was assembled without adequately consulting other parties and that it lacks impartiality. The party has refused to work with the CNI.

This criticism was backed by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) which has given the government a deadline to address its concerns over the commission’s impartiality and independence.

These calls have more recently been accompanied by the Maldivian civil society coalition Thinvana Adu which was particularly keen to encourage the involvement of international experts in the inquiry process.

The government’s response to CMAG’s criticism was, firstly, to criticise the statement as lacking in specific details, before arguing that it had asked the Commonwealth to assist in the inquiry process but had received no response.

More confusion followed as President Waheed claimed that it was not within his remit to change the compositioin of the commission. This statement was followed by a statment from the commission arguing that changes ought to be made by presidential decree and not at the behest of the commission itself.

The CMAG deadline expires in one week’s time, after which the group has threatened “further and stronger measures” which, according to Spokesperson for the Commonwealth Secretariat, Richard Uku, could include suspension.

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STO, BML and MTDC fined over financial statements

The Capital Market Development Authority (CMDA) has fined three public companies including the Bank of Maldives (BML), State Trading Organisation (STO) and the Maldives Tourism Development Corporation up to Rf120,000 (US$7782) for failing to publish quarterly reports and financial statements.

According to the CMDA, companies – including BML, STO and MTDC – listed under under the Securities (Continuing Disclosure Obligations of Issuers) Regulations must produce a quarterly report after every three months, within the following 30 days.

However, CMDA noted that both STO and MTDC had failed to produce first quarterly report for 2012 within the given 30 day period and therefore each company was fined upto Rf30,000 (US$2000).

Meanwhile, MTDC and the BML were each fined up to Rf30,000 for failing to publish annual financial statements as stipulated under the regulations. The statistics must be published within four months after the end of a financial year.

The companies had requested for deadline extension citing difficulties in producing the report within the given time frame, CMDA said. However the extension was not granted as the reasons provided were not acceptable, the authority claimed.

All the companies have been instructed to publish the reports by May 15.

BML was fined up to Rf10,000 (US$648) in January, after the bank failed to publish the quarterly report for the last three months of 2011 before the requested due date.

The bank said at the time that the report was delayed due to a pending audit.

“The fourth quarterly report requires more work as it must be published with annual figures that must be audited prior to publication,” BML said.

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Foreign Ministry slams “baseless” allegations against Indian High Commissioner

The Foreign Ministry has issued a statement condemning “in strongest words” allegations made by senior Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) officials to India’s Open magazine, among them that Indian High Commissioner Dnyaneshwar M Mulay had failed to pass critical information to the Indian government on February 7.

“The allegations made in the article against the Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives are totally baseless and unfounded,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

“The government and the people of the Maldives have the utmost respect for High Commissioner Mulay and his contributions to further strengthening the close bilateral relations between the Maldives and India. While the government of Maldives fails to understand the motives behind such unacceptable allegations made in respect of an esteemed diplomat of Mulay’s caliber, it may be recalled that close aides of President Mohamed Nasheed have in the past leveled similar allegations against President Waheed, the Maldives National Defence Force, the Maldives Police Service and all other political leaders of orchestrating the transfer of power,” it said in a statement.

“The government hopes that MDP will refrain in the future in accusing close allies of the Maldives.”

The MDP maintains that President Waheed’s government is illegitimate following Nasheed’s resignation “under duress” on February 7.

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All-party talks will not resume until EC decision reached

All Party Roadmap Talks will not continue until the Elections Commission (EC) has completed its investigations into a dispute over leadership of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), local media has  reported.

The secretariat of Ahmed Mujuthaba, who is mediating the all-party discussions, has said that talks were expected to reconvene after the EC makes a decision over the legitimacy of a vote to remove the MDP President and Vice-President, Haveeru reported.

The latest round of all party talks, scheduled for last Saturday, were aborted after parties aligned with the government refused to recognise the legitimacy of the MDP representatives in attendance.

Dhivehi Rayithunge Party (DRP) Deputy Leader Ibrahim Shareef said last week that the DRP was waiting for the EC to make a decision on the legality of the MDP’s current leadership, as well as its authority to appoint representatives to the all party talks.

“[The representatives] must be properly endorsed by the party. Somebody with the authority to nominate the representative of the party, such as the president or vice president,” he said at the time.  Shareef also noted that the DRP was “unhappily” not present during Saturday’s talks.

Dr Ibrahim Didi was removed from his position as President of the MDP, as was the Vice President Alhan Fahmy, after the party’s national council voted unanimously in support of motions of no-confidence brought against them on April 30.

Two days later, Dr Didi presented an official complaint to the EC, arguing that the procedure used to remove him from power was against the rules of the version of the MDP constitution that is legally registered at the EC.

The EC announced on Sunday that it would take a further ten days to reach a decision on the MDP case, Haveeru reports.

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STO, STELCO and Dhiraagu boards reconstituted by president

President Mohamed Waheed Hassan has reconstituted the Boards of Directors for the State Trading Organisation (STO), the State Electric Company (STELCO) and telecommunications group Dhivehi Raajjeyge Gulhun (Dhiraagu).

Abdulla Faiz is set to take the Chairperson role for the STO board. Ahmed Shareef and Ibrahim Athif Shakoor will take the Chairman role on the Board of Directors at STELCO and Dhiraagu respectively, according to the President’s Office webste.

The announcement was made after President Waheed earlier this month announced he was reconstituting the boards of six other companies.

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Amnesty, NGOs concerned about Maldives PR “whitewash”: Independent

An international lobbying firm, based in London, has accepted a commission to boost the reputation of the regime that toppled the first democratically elected President of the Maldives, writes Oliver Wright for the UK’s Independent newspaper.

“Ruder Finn has been condemned for taking the contract – thought to be worth £300,000 – to boost the image of the Maldives in the UK and America.

Mohamed Nasheed, the elected former leader, was made to quit in a military and police coup in February. He was replaced by Mohammed Waheed Hassan – who, it is claimed, is backed by the ex-dictator who ran the Maldives for 30 years.

In the weeks since the change of power, Amnesty International has denounced violence by the security forces against peaceful protesters. In March at least six protesters were injured, some seriously, when police and military officers attacked around 300 MDP protesters in the capital, Malé. Amnesty said this was part of a wider pattern of attacks on supporters of the former President Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party.

In a pitch, won by Ruder Finn, the new Government said it was looking for a firm to provide both lobbying and public relations expertise. The new regime said it wanted to “renew the Maldives image in major countries” and create “an alliance of support for the Maldives.” It wanted to “seed” positive stories about the islands in the media.

It expected the company to “arrange briefings to build links at various levels with the UK, US and major European governments.”

It would also be expected to “leverage outcomes from relationships with governments, academics and NGOs”.

Abbas Faiz, South Asian researcher for Amnesty International, said it had significant concerns about the contract.

“If a government hires any firm to whitewash human rights violations with impunity we would be very concerned. I was in the Maldives in March and the level of atrocity that we witnessed was entirely different from what we were being told by the Government.

“We will be watching the activities of Ruder Finn… if we have concerns about their role we will be raising them.”

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